How common is car cloning?

[Zio Di Roma]

We've just had a bus lane fine for a car with our plates on. It's not what you'd call a common car and I am surprised anyone would do it. It seems they have though. Is it a common problem?

[123DWA]

I think with more ULEZ/CAZ Zones & more things like operation snap its going to become a lot more common.

[Random_Person]

Absolutely rife in London, thousands and thousands of cloned plates. Let me guess, the ticket is from London and in the east?

[Trevor555]

Very common

Many car dealers are hiding reg numbers on their adverts now because of it.

[fooman]

What's the penalty for getting caught? I'm guessing less that being legit, like uninsured drivers.

[journeymanpro]

fooman said:

What's the penalty for getting caught? I'm guessing less that being legit, like uninsured drivers.

Got to get caught first.

[Forester1965]

Guess it depends on location. A few years ago we drove down from Yorkshire and visited friends in Croydon for 1 night.

Within a month I had the Police knocking on my door asking where I'd been on a few occasions, as my car has been involved in various crimes across the Croydon area.

Never had similar here, despite living near the badlands of Bradford.

[carboy2017]

Happened to a friend of mine who left his old Toyota Avensis wagon (2011 reg) parked for a few months at a friends place in a very peaceful surrey village called Chilworth when he was out of work for almost a year

Fast forward to 2021/22 he started to get traffic offence tickets from west london area (ealing,wembely etc) the funny thing is he had also travelled to those places so he paid a few times but then he got a ticket for a going through a red light on new years day on 2022 and realized he was at home!

Police were notified as when he went through the photographic evidence as the reg no of the other car was the same as his but he noticed some cosmetic differences!

[Panamax]

This is an interesting subject in the context of "inability to enforce".

These days DVLA and the police have ANPR all over the place, so they must logically become aware very quickly when the "same" car drives through Birmingham at 2.00 pm and London at 2.15. It's then a question of getting a ping one day when Mr Plod is driving behind you with his mobile ANPR activated, because there's precious little else they can do about it.

[Random_Person]

Even if stopped. the intent is near on impossible to prove. The best you are looking at is a 100 pound fine for incorrect plates, even if you drove with no plates front and back, it is still 100 pounds.

Find a conviction for "driving with cloned plates" - you won't find any. A very easy and cheap way to escape London cameras with only a small chance of actually being stopped and then having to cough for a minor traffic fine.

[Forester1965]

Surely it's strong evidence for perverting the course of justice?

[Random_Person]

You need to prove mens rea. Only in the most severe cases, it may be possible but with lot's of corresponding work. I have yet to have heard of anyone being convicted of anything criminal from cloned plates alone without a series of aggravating circumstances, and even then the charge will be a tiny one of plate representation combined with a load of much more weighty charges depending on what said person was involved in.

You have to "prove the offence" which without a confession is very difficult to do.

In one very large force, the corresponding instructions to call handlers when dealing with reports of cloned plates is that is is not an offence. Of course it is still recorded as a reportable incident, and the relevant help given, but it is not investigated. A report is entered on PNC but a low level one, and it joins the many thousands of other reports.

Edited by Random_Person on Saturday 13th April 19:45

[LesXRN]

Seems the French take cloning seriously; Number plate fraud is a serious offence, and can lead to seven years in prison, a fine of €30,000 and a six point driving licence penalty.

Edited by LesXRN on Tuesday 16th April 15:21

[eldar]

Judging by the various police camera programmes, the usual excuse is i've just bought it, I'll put the correct plates back on, which just happen to be to be in the boot, and no further action.

[peter tdci]

I returned from a holiday at the end of October to find three PCNs issued by two North London councils with my cars reg number. The photo evidence for each of them showed a car that looked very similar to mine, but with a slightly different trim and number plate.

More importantly, one of the offences took place when my car was outside my property waiting for the AA to arrive to try to get it to start! No problem getting the PCNs overturned and reported to the police as well. The offences took place over a couple of days at the end of September but there haven't been any more since.

[pills]

My dad's car got cloned a few months ago. First thing he know was a PCN from a location about 30 miles away. Odd thing was he has a grey Alfa Romeo Stelvio and the car the plate was on was a white Nissan Juke.

[The Gauge]

My car is currently cloned, having received a PCN from the council for a bus lane contravention in my city centre. I've reported it to the police to get an incident number, sent a letter to the DVLA and am disputing the PCN

I phoned the DVLA to report it, they create a reference number and give you an address to write to explaining why you think your car has been cloned

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Thankfully there are differences in the number plate such as screw holes and font that I'm using as the basis of my appeal

Edited by The Gauge on Thursday 18th April 18:22

[Zio Di Roma]

The Gauge said:

My car is currently cloned, having received a PCN from the council for a bus lane contravention in my city centre. I've reported it to the police to get an incident number, sent a letter to the DVLA and am disputing the PCN

I phoned the DVLA to report it, they create a reference number and give you an address to write to explaining why you think your car has been cloned

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Thankfully there are differences in the number plate such as screw holes and font that I'm using as the basis of my appeal

Edited by The Gauge on Thursday 18th April 18:22

The council has written to us waiving the ticket and telling us we must tell plod.

I don't think we will bother with plod unless it becomes a repeat problem. Why? Because I anticipate that it would just add our car to the police database, a situation from which no good will come. Just the driver being stopped for plod to check the car.

[The Gauge]

Zio Di Roma said:

The council has written to us waiving the ticket and telling us we must tell plod.

I don't think we will bother with plod unless it becomes a repeat problem. Why? Because I anticipate that it would just add our car to the police database, a situation from which no good will come. Just the driver being stopped for plod to check the car.

That's good news. What was it that helped you prove it wasn't your car?

Mine now has a police PNC marker which I see as a good thing. I don't mind being stopped by the police, in fact I welcome it as there's a chance they will stop the car that generated the bus lane PCN I received

Edited by The Gauge on Thursday 18th April 20:01

[Zio Di Roma]

The Gauge said:

Zio Di Roma said:

The council has written to us waiving the ticket and telling us we must tell plod.

I don't think we will bother with plod unless it becomes a repeat problem. Why? Because I anticipate that it would just add our car to the police database, a situation from which no good will come. Just the driver being stopped for plod to check the car.

That's good news. What was it that helped you prove it wasn't your car?

Mine now has a police PNC marker which I see as a good thing. I don't mind being stopped by the police, in fact I welcome it as there's a chance they will stop the car that generated the bus lane PCN I received

Edited by The Gauge on Thursday 18th April 20:01

Some decals. As luck would have it, I had photos of the car from a few days before the incident, clearly showing the decals which were absent in their image.

Have you got CCTV at home?